Now, Santana Minerals, which is exploring for gold in the same mountains where Shrek the Sheep was found by musterer Ann Scanlan on April 15, 2004, is no longer going to use the name Shrek for two of its four drilling prospects at the Bendigo-Ophir site, "due to copyright constraints".
The board of the dual-listed company announced in a statement yesterday Shreks and Shreks-East would now be called Srex and Srex-East.
"It should be noted that due to copyright constraints over the use of the name ‘Shreks’ in Santana’s prospect naming, the previously named Shreks and Shreks East prospects have been renamed as Srex and Srex-East respectively, noting their location as Southern Region Exploration prospects," the Santana board said.
Santana went on to confirm a mixture of "encouraging results" and "significant results" from drilling at its Come-in-Time (CIT), Srex (SRX) and Srex-East (SRE) prospects, during ongoing work to upgrade previous results.
The Rise and Shine (RAS) discovery remains top of the leader board and has prompted the most excitement about the potential mine’s prospects, should it get resource consent.
Santana chief executive Damian Spring said while recently drilled holes showed "CIT, SRX and SRE prospects aren’t another RAS, they show that a good quantity of supplementary feedstock is present and provide flexibility and additional longevity to the ensuing [mining pre-feasibility study]".
The most recent drilling was shallow but provided additional insights and potential for drilling deeper.
"We know from the nearby RAS deposit that the near surface mineralisation is also weaker and potential remains for these structures to bloom with depth, like RAS has done."
Santana Minerals has estimated mining Bendigo-Ophir would produce 110,000 ounces of gold a year, earn $4.46billion in revenue, pay about $1b in taxes to New Zealand and create up to 250 jobs.
